As I've covered extensively here at Talk To Action, the 2010 Republican candidate running to be the next governor of Hawaii, current Hawaii Lt. Governor James "Duke" Aiona, is closely tied to Ed Silvoso's and Cindy Jacobs' movement and in newly discovered video footage (see embedded video in full article) from July 2008, Aiona himself confirms the connection.

The term "Bonfire of the Vanities", also the title of Tom Wolfe's 1987 novel, traces to the zealotry of Italian Dominican priest Girolamo Savonarola, who incited and orchestrated the mass burning of objects deemed to incite sensuality and sin - vanity items such as mirrors, cosmetics, fine dresses and playing cards, and cultural objects such as paintings, statues, books, and musical instruments. But leaders of the New Apostolic Reformation take things farther, even, than Savonarola.

During a worship service that evangelist Cindy Jacobs held on October 7, 2008, at Ed Silvoso's 18th International Institute on Nation Transformation, in Mar del Plata, Argentina, Jacobs called on [video link] assembled local area pastors at the conference,

"Pastors, sanctify your people! You go and you tell 'em, if you have any idols in their homes we're gonna to burn 'em! If you have any witchcraft items in your homes, you bring 'em Sunday and we're gonna burn 'em! We're not gonna have witchcraft in this church!"

Jacobs was not merely referring to objects associated with contemporary interpretations of Wiccan practice, or with Satanic ritual. Cindy Jacobs and her colleagues, Peter Wagner, Ed Silvoso, and others in the New Apostolic movement cast their net of purported "witchcraft" and "idolatry" over objects associated with major world religious traditions such as Catholicism, Mormonism, and all Eastern religions, and also many native art objects.

So much to burn, so little time, and the imperative may have global consequences. According to the World Christian Encyclopedia, the Third Wave tendency in charismatic evangelical Christianity from which the New Apostolic movement is now coalescing encompassed, by AD 2000, almost 300 million Christians worldwide. Now, stresses Peter Wagner, it's bigger.

[video, below: Hawaii Lt. Governor Duke Aoina says, July 2008, that he's a part of Transformation Hawaii, and Cindy Jacobs calls on pastors to tell their church members to bring in "witchcraft items" to be burned]

"There are certain occult items were are not to possess. If we own any of the following objects we need to get rid of them. If the object was at any time worshiped as a god or used in the worship of a false god, then we should burn it or otherwise destroy it.
It is not unusual for tourists to bring home keepsakes from faraway lands that have demonic attachments or are idols. What we often do not realize is that these objects can curse us. For instance, many people purchase African masks that have been used in worship ceremonies. Others buy native art such as Kachina dolls, statues of Hindu gods and statues of Buddha. Back home, havoc starts to reign in the form of sickness, tragedy, depression of marriage break-ups. Usually the person does not know why these things have happened." (Deliver Us from Evil, pp. 223-224)

Jacobs went on to describe an alleged, contemporary religiously-motivated destruction of native art in the U.S. state of Hawaii:

"Pastor Jim Marocco... planted a church on the island of Maui. He had people bring and burn occult items, specifically objects that were worshiped as part of their native religions. After the objects were destroyed, his church experienced great growth." (Deliver Us from Evil, page 225)

Cindy Jacobs then proceeds to give an account extremely similar to that offered, below, from C. Peter Wagner, on a mass-burning of allegedly "occult" items that Jacobs, Wagner, and Ed Silvoso helped orchestrate in 1990 in the Argentine city of Resistencia. As Peter Wagner wrote in his book Hard-Core Idolatry - Facing the Facts,

"Burn The Idols!
Doris was preparing to travel to Argentina with Cindy Jacobs for the climactic evangelistic campaign. As she was reading scripture the morning she was to leave, the Holy Spirit told her that in Resistencia they must burn the idols, like the magicians did in Ephesus. Ed Silvoso, Cindy Jacob and the Resistencia pastors agreed. So the evening before the evangelistic crusade, all the city's believers came together for prayer. The leaders explained how important it would be to do spiritual housecleaning in their homes before they came to the meeting. They began mentioning the kinds of material things that might be bringing honor to the spirits of darkness; pictures, statues, Catholic saints, Books of Mormon, pictures of former lovers, pornographic material, fetishes, drugs, Ouija boards, zodiac charms, good luck symbols, crystals for healing, amulets, talismans, tarot cards, witch dolls, voodoo items, love potions, books of magic, totem poles, certain pieces of jewelry, objects of Freemasonry, horoscopes gargoyles, native art, foreign souvenirs, and what have you.

The believers agreed to obey God and to cleanse their homes, even if it meant giving up what might have been expensive items. They were to wrap each item in newspaper to protect privacy, and then cast the objects into a 55-gallon drum set before the platform the following night. The drum was heaped to overflowing! They poured gasoline on it and set it on fire." - C. Peter Wagner, Hard-Core Idolatry - Facing the Facts, 1999, Wagner Institute of Practical Ministry

For those unfamiliar with their movement, C. Peter Wagner, Cindy Jacobs, and Ed Silvoso are three of the leading figures in the creation of what Wagner has dubbed the New Apostolic Reformation (sometimes also called the Apostolic and Prophetic movement or the Third Wave of the Holy Spirit.)

The most important crucible for the distinctive ideas and practices of their movement was the Argentine city of Resistencia, where beginning in 1990 according to Wagner, Prayer Evangelism and Spiritual Mapping were first tried on a mass scale (for an explanation of these terms, see Rene' Holvast's 2005 doctoral dissertation for the University of Utrecht, Spiritual Mapping: The Turbulent Career of a Contested American Paradigm [PDF file link], reworked and republished in late 2008 as a book, from Brill academic publishers.)

The mass-burning of allegedly evil objects Wagner describes was an attempt to break the powers of evil that had supposedly become entrenched in Resistencia. It is characteristic of the movement that religious items associated with major world religions such as Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam are lumped together with "pornography", "drugs," and faddish commercialized occult objects such as Ouija Boards.

The inherent disrespect of world religious traditions, some going back thousands of years, is intrinsic to the basic outlook of Wagner et. al - there can be only one truth, one correct belief system, and all pretense otherwise is mere compromise.

What's so striking about this outlook is that it extends even to native art objects. One would have to look back hundreds of years for a comparable totalistic imperative to annihilate entire religions and cultures. A classic example would, of course, be the attempt of the Catholic Church to expunge New World Cultures. As Manuel Aguilar-Moreno writes in A Handbook to Life in the Aztec World,

"On their quest to eradicate Mesoamerican culture, the Spaniards toppled indigenous sacred structures and built Catholic churches and other edifices over them. Oftentimes, rubble from the destroyed indigenous sites was used in the construction of colonial palaces and Catholic edifices such as the cathedral and many other churches in Mexico City. This not only sanctified the space and legitimized the Catholic Church but also sent the natives the message that the Catholic Church was indeed supreme to the heathen and "demonic" spirituality of the indigenous peoples." [A Handbook to Life in the Aztec World, pages 338-339

In Deliver Us from Evil Cindy Jacobs instructs readers, for a more detailed explication of the process by which everyday life can be sanctified and purged of demon influence, to consult Ridding Your Home of Spiritual Darkness by by Chuck D. Pierce and Rebecca Wagner Sytsema.

"Take what can be burned and burn it. If it cannot be burned, pass it through the fire (as a symbolic act of obedience) and then destroy it by whatever other means are available to you such as smashing or even flushing (I have known people to do this with jewelry that cannot be destroyed in other ways)!

Once you have destroyed the object, renounce any participation you or your family have had with that object (whether knowingly or unknowingly) and ask the Lord to forgive you...

Because the legal right for demonic forces linked with that object has been removed through these acts, you can now command any demonic forces linked with that object to leave in the Name of Jesus.

Repeat these steps for every object that needs to go." - from Ridding Your Home of Spiritual Darkness, by Chuck D. Pierce and Rebecca Wagner Sytsema, 1999, published by Wagner Institute For Practical Ministry

Pierce and Sytsema provide a list of objects to burn, destroy, or flush down toilets that is very similar to Peter Wagner's list, only longer:

"Buddhas (like those on the jewelry box); Hindu images; fertility gods or goddesses (or any type of god or goddess); Egyptian images; Greek gods; gargoyles; kachina dolls, totem poles, or any other native figure that depicts or glorifies a "spirit" or demonic being; evil depictions of creatures such as lions, dogs, dragons, cats, or any other creature made with demonic distortions; or any other image of any person, idol, god, or demonic figure which is considered an object of worship or spiritual power in any culture of the world...

A commonly seen item in the United States that falls into this category is images of the Virgin Mary, who is often worshiped by many as an equal to Jesus. C. Peter Wagner calls the worship of Mary a "deceptive adaptation" by the Queen of Heaven, a high-ranking demonic principality, to gain worship that should belong to God." - Ridding Your Home of Spiritual Darkness, page 20

The Pierce/Sytsema list objects to be destroyed from "false" or "occult" religions is almost identical to Wagner's - all major world religions except Judaism and charismatic evangelical Christianity - and adds, also, Jehovah's Witnesses, Christian Science, Baha'i, Yoga, and Transcendental Meditation. Other native objects added to Wagner's list include native drums.

But the Pierce/Sytsema list has a major contemporary component. In a final subsection, "Other Objects," we learn that,

"Our homes may be filled with other items that do not bring glory to God and may attract demonic activity. These would include games such as Dungeons and Dragons or Masters of the Universe, in addition to a myriad of demonic or violent video games; books and magazines devoted to fantasy; comic books, posters, movies, or music with demonic, violent, or sexual themes; pornography; illegal drugs; sensual art, books, or "toys"; or a number of other things that are demonic, illegal, immoral, or contrary to God's Word.
By allowing any of these types of things into our homes we give the enemy a legal right to invade our lives in ways that he would otherwise not have." - Ridding Your Home of Spiritual Darkness, page 22

While the draconian nature of this imperative, to burn, destroy, or dispose of all objects in contemporary life deemed to be "demonic, illegal, immoral, or contrary to God's Word" might tempt some to draw comparisons with movements within militant Islam, that could very possibly mislead, because the movement that Cindy Jacobs, Peter Wagner, and Ed Silvoso have helped to inspire, shape, and lead is surprisingly, even jarringly at ease with modernity, "Bonfire of the Vanities" notwithstanding.

At the March 2010 Convergence conference in Cedar Hills, Texas, Ed Silvoso concluded a presentation by bestowing an "anointing" Silvoso presented as restoring a class of miracle described in the New Testament book of Acts, in which Peter was said to have been able to effect miracles through everyday objects he regularly came into contact with, such as an apron.

Up onstage, Ed Silvoso declared to a crowd of several hundred New Apostolic leaders that they, too, would now be able to effect miracles via everyday modern appliances and technological objects in their lives.
Silvoso raised up his iPhone and his audience, including Cindy Jacobs and Peter Wagner brandishing their own iPhones, held cellphones and other mobile communications devices such as Blackberries, aloft in unison to receive Silvoso's impartation. (video of the cellphone anointing)

They're burning things they don't understand- burning HISTORY in many cases. The totem poles? The carvings are symbolic and reflect the history of a family, clan, or tribe (usually family). The masks and carvings in Maori society are of people who have died... just deliberately twisted/modified so that they aren't an exact likeness (by tradition). We've had things from our culture destroyed- one young girl, for instance, got hooked by those a*h**s and destroyed her regalia because it was considered heathen- regalia incorporating many many hours of hard work and sacrifice by her family (and we aren't heathens). It was worth several thousand dollars according to one of her relatives I talked with. It had little to do with religion, by the way- but a lot to do with culture.

They've destroyed symbols from our tribe that were actually symbols reflecting our form of Christianity. Some of those symbols are very old. They just aren't the European-based protestant idea of Christian symbols and thus went unrecognized.

I think it's part of the deliberate twisting and elimination of real history to support their political goals. Once we don't know our own history, how can we stand in the face of their lies (or the lies that we'd been taught in school)? They eliminate the people's knowledge of their own culture, and what is the result? The dominionists can tell lies to the people about their own culture and replace pride (in their good heritage) with shame (based upon dominionist lies)... the thing most of us are trying to get away from. Yes: most Native Americans (especially from the southeast) were taught to be ashamed of themselves and their families and their heritage- especially the older generations.

Yet they're winning converts (even among my tribe), and those people are falling for their propaganda. Knowledge is being replaced by propaganda and ignorance. God help us all!

"...might tempt some to draw comparisons with movements within militant Islam, that could very possibly mislead, because the movement that Cindy Jacobs, Peter Wagner, and Ed Silvoso have helped to inspire, shape, and lead is surprisingly, even jarringly at ease with modernity..."
*The religion writer Karen Armstrong argued that all fundamentalist movements are modern in nature, because they consciously organized political and technological power to bring about an agenda, even if the agenda was reactionary. Put it this way, the Ayatollah's armies had no problem using advanced missiles to bomb Iraq. True traditionalism is based on the idea that things are unchanging; to call for a revolution to return to the past implies that tradition can only be enforced by force and tyranny. Thus figures as disparate as Hitler and Pol Pot viewed their bureaucratic tyranny as an instrument to cleanse Western corruption from minds that would eventually recover traditional thought. The Dominionists are very modern; they openly combine religion and capitalism in their morality because it sells.

These would include games such as Dungeons and Dragons or Masters of the Universe, in addition to a myriad of demonic or violent video games; books and magazines devoted to fantasypersonalized door mats

Shortly after Alaska was purchased by the USA, Presbyterian missionaries descended on the Aleut and Yupic peoples there. They found many books printed in 'Russian' and in an effort to 'Americanize' the native people, burned the books. Little did they know that much of them were the Gospels, printed in the Russian alphabet but translated into the native languages. No wonder these people never took to the protestant religion, preferring their own Orthodox Christian faith.

It's sad when people destroy stuff they don't understand in the name of religion. Every going back to the crusades where horrible things were done in the name of religion. Unfortunately a lot of the same stuff continues today. Car Accident Injury Attorney

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